My Rating - 1 out of 5 stars
Publisher - Harper CollinsGenre - Children's Fiction/Classic
Publishing year - 1954
Language - English
ISBN - 978-0-00736378-0
Pages - 240
My Review -
I am disappointed. The last two books were good, but this one is not. At least not for me. The Horse and His Boy is the third book in The Chronicles of Narnia, written by C.S. Lewis. Unfortunately, this one is not adapted into the movie, and I guess now I know why. It is full of racism.
The story starts with Shasta in the land of Calormen. One day he ran away from his house with the help of a Narnian horse, Bree. They met another human, Aravis, and her horse Hwin who can also talk like Bree on their journey. They decide to go together to Narnia, and like any other fantasy story, they meet with hurdles, wild animals, and humans living in Tashbaan.
Tashbaan's Prince Rabadash wants to marry Queen Susan and devise a plan to abduct her. Aravis and Shasta find themselves between their cunning plans and try to help the Narnians and the people of Archenland, Narnia's ally, and neighboring country.
Their journey changed the fate of almost everyone, especially Shasta. Shasta and Cor's first interaction reminds me of The Prince and The Pauper story; I'm glad it didn't turn out like that, but it had a resemblance.
The story is artless and filled with ferocity, envy, prejudice, and goriness unsuitable for children. The characters are also dull and self-centered; I didn't like them.
If this story is ever made into a movie, I don't think I'll watch it. C.S. Lewis's work is banned in a few countries, and I think the reason is apparent; you can't let your child read a book that comes from a place of narrow-mindedness.
The Magician's Nephew and The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe were worth reading, but this one is a waste of time. Skip it if you want; you're not going to miss anything important. However, I will continue reading the series and crossing my fingers that I like the next part, which is Prince Caspian.
Yes unfortunately this book is extremely racist and I can’t believe it hasn’t been banned already. I read all seven of the chronicles of narnia a few times through out elementary and middle school. Now I’m 33 and decided I wanted to reread The Horse and His Boy since I remembered it being my favorite and it wasn’t how I remembered it at all. It was so blatantly racist. I’m trying to figure out how to have this book banned so that it’s not teaching children about superiority to other cultures. I’m not sure how to go about this. I thought I would first try emailing the libraries and book stores letting them know about this book. Is it true it’s banned in some countries? I’d like to add that to the emails if I can find out which countries have banned it.
ReplyDelete